The bare facts Life drawing is wonderful - for artists and for models like me

Life drawing hit the headlines this week, when a north London class that has been running for decades was ordered to cover up its naked models or seek out a new location.

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Ellie Heney, 32, from Lancaster, has been a life model for 13 years and hopes to be one for the rest of her life. She explains why.

It was my first year of university in Liverpool and I was a typical broke student, living on beans on toast. When I saw a poster offering £20 for life modelling, I thought, "I can do that!" So I gave it a go.

It's the strangest thing in the world when you do it for the first time. My heart was pounding, the adrenaline was rushing and the back of my head felt prickly. I was asking myself: "What on earth am I doing? This is crazy!"

You don't know what to do with your limbs. You have no idea how to place yourself, and it all feels so strange. But I did it a few times and found that I absolutely loved it.

Thirteen years later, I have a repertoire of poses and there are a thousand reasons why I enjoy what I do. In terms of the artistry, it is absolutely gorgeous seeing what people come up with. There's such a range of talent and such a variation of ideas in the room, given that everyone is presented with the same thing to draw.